The art rock album Flea describes as “one of his favourites of all time”
If there’s one thing that Flea has learned throughout his career, it’s to never let genre labels get in the way of good music. The Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist may have his favourites from different kinds of genres, but the best music is about taking the greatest elements of everything you’ve heard and channelling it into something that will make people gasp when they hear it for the first time. While it would be easy to pick artists like Sly and the Family Stone as pivotal moments for Flea, he admitted that listening to Talk Talk’s The Spirit of Eden was enough to alter his DNA.
Looking at both bands side by side, it feels like the only thing that they have in common is both bands have individuals who play instruments. Red Hot Chili Peppers have been known as the kind of introspective version of the surfer bros around California, while Talk Talk is the kind of icy atmospheric pop rock that caters to the softer side of music.
For Flea, the mellow side of music has never been a bad word to him. He may have loved the sounds of punk rock, but he was also attuned to the mellower sounds of soul music as well as every stripe of jazz, whether it was chaotic or smooth as butter.
When talking about Talk Talk frontman Mark Hollis, Flea said that The Spirit of Eden had the potential to lull him into a trance, posting, “[He] made one of my favourite albums of all time with his band Talk Talk, The Spirit of Eden where he and his band mates managed to make a rock album that hypnotized me the way Miles Davis’ best stuff does”.
While most people remember Talk Talk for songs like ‘It’s My Life’, The Spirit of Eden is not looking to meet people halfway. This is pop music on progressive music’s terms, and some of the most interesting elements are when Hollis creates different textures whenever he plays, stretching out songs to nine-minute experiences that never feel meandering and are always focused on telling a story through music.
There are even a few hints of that jazzy texture laced throughout the record. Since many of the songs ended up stretching out beyond their runtime, hearing the band bounce off each other without a care in the world feel like they are in a heightened version of a jazz club, albeit one with a synthesiser instead of an upright piano.
Flea would also return to this album on many different occasions, explaining, “It became a pillar of my life, a go-to album when I need to soothe my soul. Absolute beauty and infinite depth”. Even though Flea has always gone back to funk for the majority of his band’s career, there are a few times when he seems to be borrowing from Talk Talk’s model.
If you listen to the way that he incorporates his bass on albums like Stadium Arcadium, Flea is putting a more melodic spin on it, filling out the soundscape by playing melodies across multiple strings half the time. Just like Hollis, it wasn’t always about playing fast and loud. It was about creating a mood for whatever the music needed, and listening to tracks like ‘Death of a Martian’, Flea is just as likely to pull out a piece of musical beauty as he is to bring the slap bass back in.
